East Side
   
  

 /=======================( - Mikage-cho - East Side - )=======================\ 
|      Nobody in their right mind would have truly considered the west side    |
| of Mikage-cho to be anything good. It's when they step out into this part    |
| of town that they may, indeed, have to say it was the good part of town.     |
|      The east side of Mikage-cho, separated from the west by a giant black   |
| barrier, is covered by a darkness that is most difficult to see through.     |
| The streets are in shambles, the most functional being merely half-built.    |
| Next to nothing is recognizable from current day Lunarvale. The hospital     |
| has been replaced by a foreboding castle. Joy Street has returned to being   |
| the Black Market, and the SEBEC building is nowhere to be seen, in its       |
| place the haunted house from Lunarvale's past.                               |
|      The demons here are ever nastier, and you cannot find a single soul     |
| moving about the streets. The colorful barrier around the town remains as    |
| it was in the west, suggesting there is no (conventional) escape... aside    |
| from running to the west through the subway tunnels.                         |
|===============================( - Players - )================================|
| Tohru Adachi [NWO] <Hanuman>          Yukiko Amagi [KDA] <Konohana Sakuya>   |
| Naomi Suzuno [U] <Ma'at>              Tohya Kidzuki [NWO] <Persephone>       |
| Thora Kobayashi [KDA] <Pyro Jack>     Kanon Itoh [DS] <Tesso>                |
| Deidra Doyle [SEES] <Cu Chulainn>                                            |
|===============================( - Objects - )================================|

|================================( - Exits - )=================================|
| Fort Entrance <F>:       Mikage-cho E - Fort Junes                           |
| Mall <M>:                Mikage-cho E - Karma Palace                         |
| House <H>:               Mikage-cho E - Haunted House                        |
| Castle <C>:              Mikage-cho E - Castle Mana                          |
| Residence <R>:           Mikage-cho E - Fulfilled Dreamhouse                 |
| Spire <S>:               Mikage-cho E - Onisaka Tower                        |
| Tunnel <T>:              Mikage-cho - Subway Tunnels                         |
 \============================================================================/
Maki winces visibly. She's very honest. Or, at least, she thinks she's being honest. She doesn't like to see Thora suffering. She's a friend. They might not know each other TOO well, and apparently these two don't actually...know each other?--well, it's a confusing matter that will hopefully be cleared up with time. Maki pokes the ground with her foot. "I'm sorry, I'm sure she's okay! But um-- well, I guess this is a parallel world of some sort, I don't really know a lot of details myself--but I know that Kandori was using the DVA system to mess with time and space! So this is all his fault. If we find him, maybe we can beat some answers outta him. Or just beat him."


"Hell, this place is hell." Thora mumbles, watching Maki scuff her toe against the ground. Come to think of it, she realizes that she definitely has met /this/ Maki before at least. Way back during the raid on Kirijo labs. In fact, that was the first time she met Aki too come to think of it. "What's the DVA system?"

At the mention of Kandori, Thora looks down at the ground, face turning a little red. "I kind of...can't do anything about Kandori anymore. I'm in KNOWS, he practically owns me now." Not only that but she has it on good authority that Kandori doesn't given people answers. "To be honest, I think it's Aki that we should be after. She's the one with the reality-bending powers but..." She rubs her face with a hand. "But it's just that. Reality bending. Can't really do anything against that. Damnit, there has to be another way out of here."


Out here, well in the distance, doing some scrounging work? That's pretty dangerous, isn't it? But then, Tohya is of the opinion that doing just about anything out here is going to be fraught with peril, and there are still things yet they need that they don't have. She can contribute some, anyway, now that she's slept, and...

That's about all there is to it. Thus far, she's run into precisely zero fights that she hasn't been able to avoid, while looking for..something. Someone. Thora, even. She doesn't have much to say to her, but she wants to check, anyway. So, as they two of them talk, and the conversation reaches Kandori, it's almost as if it summons the other KNOWS member here. The dark-haired senior walks up to the ground, her eyes avoiding the demon corpse. "..." Thora will know she's here, and this Maki girl...Well. "Hey."


"The Dimensional Variance Accelerator." Maki says, "I'm not sure much about the specifics, though." She frowns, "I've always been in this world--but I was in your world when that machine was goin' out of whack. I think it probably summoned me over."

She hesitates, though, as Thora provides her own idea as to who they should go after. This 'Aki' person. Maki's face pales and she says, "Well... there might be... but are you sure? It's that 'Aki's' fault, not Kandori's?"

She frowns a little. "It doesn't feel right to me, but you'd know better than I would..."


"She brought me here." Thora says angrily. "She controls everything. Until I see Kandori twisting reality himself here, I don't think beating him up's gonna solve anything." Not that she doesn't want to give Kandori a beating at some point but in her current position, she can't really do that. "Frankly, I don't think we can do anything about Aki either."

Thora stands up, the metal of the car hood creaking under her weight. "There's a way out, there has to be. I'm sure someone's gonna find it someday." A familiar scent pops up on her 'radar' and Thora's stomach twists. Tohya? Out here?

Thora doesn't look at Tohya as she greets them. She does reply though: "Hi."


In the days following Thora's rescue at the tower, Fumiya has been surprisingly scarce. He's staying at Fort Junes, of course, but he's been conspicuously avoiding people and just heading out into Mikage-cho for the day. He'd return and pawn off anything he collected fighting the demons in town to Yosuke to cover the cost of 'room and board', and that would be about all.

Maybe he's just trying to play the gruff 80s horror movie hero a bit too much. Or maybe there's something else that's really bugging him. He continues to keep the unloaded shotgun with him everywhere, keeping it rested on his shoulder as he pretends to wander aimlessly through the East Side.

He comes to an abrupt stop when he sees that he's approaching Thora and two others. He almost backs up, but he hesitates. Finally, sighing, he continues forward. Waving with his free hand, he calls out to the one girl of the bunch he knows. "Heeeeeeeey, Thora-babe!" He immediately bites his tongue when he said that. The 'babe' slipped. He keeps a grin plastered on his face to hide the fact that it was an accident.


Dimensional Variance Accelerator? Seems like Tohya came in at a pretty weird time, hearing something about other worlds, summoning over....and how it might not be Kandori's fault after all. It's weird, did Thora say something like that? It's hard to hear from too far away out here on the east side, with most of the tall young woman's focus going towards avoiding the demons here.

"Don't worry about it. Long day for everyone." She does remember before, but it's water under the bridge as far as she's concerned. She's been called worse. 'She'...Well, whatever. "Kobayashi, any luck?" It'll take her a minute to get close enough to properly converse. At least with her focus on her senses, she's not surprised to note Fumiya's approach. Not that she would be surprised anyway; they'd...came in what vaguely resembles 'together', since it'd be stupid to go out into Mikage-cho's dangerous streets on your own.

"Not sure about a 'way out', but I know we'll all be better off if we stick together."


"Why'd she bring you here?" Maki asks, frowning a little at the insistence that Kandori doesn't have anything to do with it. She is pretty eager to pin the blame on him. Maybe she just doesn't care for him. But, for the moment, she is acquiescing to Thora's words. "Well, I won't cause any trouble with him unless I see him doing something bad, then. But if that's the case, I have to find Chisato. She's a friend from mine, I think she might be from the other world too. She might know something, but the Harem Queen is keeping her prisoner."

She looks towards Tohya and thrusts her fist into the air, "That's right! Teamwork!"

Wow that kid looks weird. Thora-babe?

"But I hear if you go into her palace, you can't get out..."


Were Thora not essentially avoiding people now too she might have picked up on the absence of Fumiya and his...Fumiyaness. It's a shame too, Thora's actually seen Evil Dead and it's ilk and found them pretty hilarious. Americans /could/ make good movies! Fumiya's rather strong scent does come to her seconds before the rather spirited, very Fumiya-ish greeting. And the babe slip-up. Oh no.

Slowly, Thora turns to look at Fumiya but...she doesn't seem very mad at all. She just looks tired and depressed. "Fumiya-san. Hi."

She sits back down again, this time on the roof of the car, which folds a little under her weight. Her legs dangle into the empty windshield window of the vehicle. "...any luck with what, Kidzuki?" she mutters, swinging her feet at the air.

Her shoes become an apparent object of fascination as Thora refuses to look away from him. "Aki hates me. I attacked her back when she invaded the Kirijo labs and now she's got a grudge. So she took me here and put me in the tower so I would die." Her gaze shifts from her shoes to her wrists, where the broken manacles remain. Seems she hasn't gotten around to trying to get them off-or worse, she actually /likes/ them there. "...Harem Queen?"

For some reason, Thora's immediately reminded of Violence Jack.


More sets of words that don't make sense, but at least that's another mark towards not trying to murder somebody, as far as the quiet girl can tell. Tohya glances between Thora and Maki, arms crossed, waiting until she actually /can/ respond.

Admittedly, Maki's sudden enthusiasm takes her aback a little, causing her to sort of just /look/ with a slight incline of her head a moment later. "...Right, teamwork." O-kay.

When Thora doesn't lash out at Fumiya, that's another surprise, but they've been letting each other be, so...she lets him be. "...So that's why you were there." A pause, and she looks down to the manacles on Thora's wrists, too, finally asking her original question. "I assumed you were out here scrounging for supplies. Luck with that." But it's a good question, too--Harem Queen? That doesn't sound very friendly. "Where's this 'Queen' keeping your friend? That'd be something I'd be willing to help with."


There appears to be a Very Important Discussion being held outside, and Naomi doesn't know it until she arrives herself, stepping out of Fort Junes and lugging a trash bag to throw at some alleyway somewhere that wouldn't be seen and relatively out of the way. Her violet eyes fall on the husk of a car, Thora perched upon it and Tohya and Fumiya returning from their scrounging sojourn. Cleaning has become less of an innate desire to temporarily dwell in a pristine, temporary home and more along the lines of....therapy. It kept her busy and useful, utterly unaccustomed to whiling away the hours doing nothing when she has been plucked from a life that was full to bursting of Things That Need to Get Done. If she ever needed a vacation, this isn't exactly the place she would choose to get away from it all.

Snippets of the conversation drift to her ears as she disposes of the day's refuse, Kandori's name mentioned once again; she who knew absolutely nothing about the man save for the bits and pieces she overheard yesterday - that he was the CEO of SEBEC, primarily (and secondarily, he migh be Japan's version of Tony Stark if he had such things like time-and-space-bending machines just lying around, waiting to get stabbed by an angry teenager who just wanted his girlfriend back). At the mention of a Harem Queen, she couldn't help but furrow her brows, tilting her head towards the group confusedly.

So this is what going mad feels like.

Dusting her hands, she starts moving towards the group, fingers sliding into the pockets of jeans that were looking more well-worn ('broken-in', she would say, it being the optimal state any pair of jeans could be) by the day.


If they ever get out of here alive, Fumiya and Thora will have to make Shirou watch Evil Dead with them. It's always fun to watch first reactions.

Fumiya's just as surprised as anyone that Thora doesn't so much as react to the babe thing. So his grin becomes a bit more genuine. "So what are you girls discussing anyway?" He asks before falling silent to actually pay attention.

Harem Queen? Sounds like some kinda pervy manga. He frowns, but doesn't comment on it further.

Instead he asks something more general. "So I take it we're no further to finding a way out?" He says with a bit of a sigh. Thora's 'someday' comment doesn't exactly fill him with hope. He first thought they'd find some way out in a few days, no problem. He never really wanted to think of this as being some kind of permanent set up.

Odd that even that depressing thought isn't what's been eating him lately. He keeps a stupid grin on his face to hide it, though.


"We'll get you guys out!" Maki says, "Though...it would be lonely here without all my friends here." She frowns, briefly, as if something was naggling at the back of her mind--but she ignores it with a shrug and looks towards Thora, "But if she could kill you, she--would've just done it." She tells Thora, "I mean, she's not really about the restraint..."

She tilts her head, shrugs her shoulders again, and then adds, "Yeah I don't know much about her, but apparently she has no taste in art and is a total jerk! She doesn't let people leave the palace..."

Something occurs to her.

"Hey--you know, maybe she can get us out. She's not as powerful as Aki is, in here, but she seems to have some similar abilities. She's still tough though--maybe we should meet up with the others on the other side first..."


Thora will definitely drag Shirou over to watch Evil Dead (and Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness) with Fumiya. Once they're out at least. It'll cheer her up and god knows she needs some of that. "Lots of stuff. Like what to do to get out of here." Someone else would figure this out, which is why Thora said 'someday'. She knew the solution definitely wasn't going to come from her because she knows jack about this place. "Doesn't seem that way, Fumiya-san."

Thora will not be your source of hope today. A passive-sounding "Oh." is tossed in Tohya's direction that Thora doesn't try to elaborate on further. Well, she found this busted car, that had to count for something. Her shoulders sink a little.

The pleasant smell of mint suddenly invades her nostrils and like a Pavlonian dog hearing a bell, Thora begins to salivate. An unfortunate craving for mint chocolate quickly develops before she manages to identify that smell. Oh, right, it was that girl she wasn't familiar with. Rolling her head back, she watches Naomi, but continues to talk to Maki. "She wanted me to feel pain first. I dunno about this Harem Queen thing, it sounds like we'd just end up getting /more/ trapped."


That's honestly the nicest option, that they've all just gone mad--or maybe just that Tohya has, but she's not sure she'd credit herself with all of this. It'd just be too arrogant to assume that it was all her, so...she's had time to think about the possibilities. She's had too much time to think. In any case, as Naomi moves closer, Tohya looks that way, giving a quiet greeting without moving more than the slight turn of her head. "Suzuno-san." There's more to say, really, considering her help yesterday, but...She's not sure how to say it. It shows, the indecision, before the older student looks back to the conversation at hand, grateful for a puzzle to sort out.

To Fumiya, she leans, but is beaten to the punch in terms of explanations. So, that works well enough. Instead, she'll reply to Thora, "Dumb question. You found this, alright. Good work." She saw those sinking shoulders, and...Well, it's important that none of them are too down.

A way out? "...Thanks." She says this to Maki, whose name she's still fuzzy on. "How do you know so much, anyw--wait. The other side? There are other people trapped here? Where?"


Fumiya shrugs at Thora's latest comment. "I dunno, Thora. If we're stuck, we're stuck. I don't see how trying could get us any worse off than we are now." Says the guy who didn't spend a few days locked in a tower. Don't mind him, he's just rambling off what sounds good in his head.

He glances to Tohya, and rubs his chin. "There should be more people here. At least as many as ran in on SEBEC that night. Probably more. I've seen people I didn't recognize getting chased by demons around here." He doesn't confirm if he tried to save them or not. He /probably/ did. "Come to think of it, I haven't seen a few of those folks since that.... uh..." He winces. "...that raid on the front office. I've seen Yosuke since. But Shiki was there too, and a few other babes." He blanks on Itsuka and Hinata's names, and he was never even introduced to Himeru. "So they have to be around somewhere."

He watches Naomi approach, though doesn't react one way or another. Normally he'd promptly put his foot in his mouth hitting on her, or any girl, but being reminded of what happened in the lobby has him concerned for the others.

"That reminds me, there's that tunnel we can't pass. Well, not /safely/. Could even moer people be past there?" Might explain what happened to his missing compatriots from a few nights ago. Odd that they would wind up on completely different sides of the city, but Fumiya doesn't even pretend to understand how this science works. If it can even be called science.


It would be apropos, and almost a tasty irony, should she be devoured by the very person she assisted in the efforts to save in some kind of hell dimension. If there didn't appear to be some sort of solution in the horizon by the way Maki was talking about the Harem Queen, she might very well submit herself to it if their situation is in any way permanent.

Luckily, hopefully, it isn't. Naomi isn't one to declare something a lost cause until all options have been exhausted. Stopping by the fringes of the gathering, at Tohya's greeting, she gives her senpai a small, rueful smile - relief showing in her eyes at the sign that some of the status quo has been maintained as far as Tohya was concerned; she looked much better than she did yesterday - at the very least there aren't any tears. "Kidzuki-senpai," she greets softly. The rest gets a small bow from the waist in greeting, according the appropriate courtesy towards her comrades-at-arms. After all, like what Maki says, they were all in this together. And while she is still learning everyone's names (an endeavor that has been somewhat difficult, considering everyone else seems to know each other already), she undertakes any effort expended with that same, quietly stalwart diligence.

Fumiya's words are given their due consideration, she glances over at him, her expression uncertain but certainly hopefuly. "Hanamura-san said something about the 'other side', the day before," she replies. "And there was a person I ran into at the station when I first arrived at Lunarvale who I haven't seen around here. It...the worst could have happened to her, but... you can say she doesn't strike me as the type to be felled by demons very easily."


Maki nods to Fumiya. "The school is on the other side of the tunnel. It's dangerous but we might have to... it's less dangerous than the Palace, that's for sure." She doesn't comment on Aki's lies any more because she's not sure what to make of that response. It seems a little weird to her and she can't explain why.

"To be honest I'm actually FROM the other side, but I ended up here for some reason."


"Hmph." Thora grumps, now sufficiently cranky thanks to the subject matter and her newfound ravenous hunger for candy. She had half a mind to excuse herself from the conversation and look for some sustinance. Preferably somewhere that hasn't had Yosuke's enterprising little fingers all over it. "Who ran in on SEBEC?" Fumiya manages to answer that question just a little. Huh, Shiki went to SEBEC?

Thinking about that further, she's actually kind of glad she was stuck in here during that. Kandori probably would have made her fight her friends, something she's been dreading since joining KNOWS. She knew it was going to happen eventually. Hopefully they'd forgive her for it.

She doesn't really say anything to Tohya's complement, which feels like the verbal equivalent of a headpat. Yes, good dog. Now go fetch more stuff. Normally this would make her pretty angry but the fire just isn't...there anymore.

Her stomach growls softly and Thora shifts restlessly. Despite her discomfort, she fires off one last question at Maki. "Was the barrier always there?"


Tohya doesn't say much else to Naomi, yet, but she's glad to have her kohai around, all the same. She's one of the few people the senior feels like she can trust, even if they haven't known each other very long--not even as long as she's known Thora, for that matter. And as for Thora, well...If she's going to just ignore her words, why should she keep bothering? Her mouth twitcches very slightly, but she remains silent. She's just being taken advantage of there, anyway.

She resolves to let the junior KNOWS member fend for herself.

"...I see, Suzuno-san. That's." other people--and other people from Lunarvale--and more than that, a raid on the SEBEC building. She mysteriously doesn't ask about the girls there, but Shiki's name rings a bell, in any case, and Fumiya's further thoughts seem...pretty reasonable. "That might be just it. You two are right, Hanamura was saying something about that..." A pause. Maki's still really cryptic, but that just seems like it's how it's going to be, as frustrating as it is. "...What do you mean you're from here, anyway? How do people live in this place?"


Shirou gives a yawn, heading out of the fort, rubbing his shoulder a bit. He's holding his spear carefully... he's keeping the cursed thing with him, as it's his only protection from the demons that are out there. He's... come to a realization on something, and he doesn't know how he's goint to tell his friends...


Fumiya taps the shotgun on his shoulder, fidgeting a little. Truth be told he's worried about Shiki. Not that he thinks the manga artist can't fend for himself, but he was pretty injured when the blast happened. Hopefully he wound up with allies.

/Better injured than DEAD./

Fumiya immediately brings his free hand up to rub the side of his head, trying to banish his more disturbing thoughts. He /really/ wants to get out of this place, as much as he's trying not to let it show. Instead he tries to pay more attention to what's being said around him. Even if it's pretty confusing. "Always lived here?" He echoes Tohya's question, and looks around. "Um.. didn't the demons make it a little hard?"

Fumiya spots Shirou as he exits the fort, and shoots him a neutral look. He won't get on his case about his recklessness while they're still stuck.


As all eyes turn to Maki, Naomi is no exception - especially with what she says about originally being from the other side. She says very little, however, content to listen in on the current proceedings in hopes that a solution or even just an idea would present itself. Everyone else appeared knowledgeable about what's happening than she is - she is content to listening to the others speak and ask the relevant questions. All she can do is learn....and hope that it amounts to something.


Maki says, "Nah, usually they don't bother you. Over here they're a lot more dangerous than on the other side. You talk as if you don't have demons in your world, but I know you do."

She shakes her head at Thora, "Not really, not that I remember. It's been here a while, but it's goten stronger and stronger so right now the only path through is the subway."

Maki isn't TRYING to be cryptic, but she doesn't really know all that much more than you guys do and she doesn't have your benefit of being from the other world to recognize the differences. This is normmal for her. "You haven't seen the other side, but it's a lot nicer. There's a mall, a school, houses..."


In the last few days, Thora's realized she can't do anything for Tohya anyway. So she's supposed to protect her according to Kandori-hah, fat chance of that. She couldn't even protect herself. Maybe Kandori knew that, maybe he just set her up to fail. Though she does quietly watch Tohya's reaction when the whole SEBEC raid is brought up. Most of the arguing yesterday she was actually able to hear from her spot on the floor in the Designated Sleeping Area.

It's always good to have Shirou around, Thora has to admit, but now there are a /lot/ of people around her and it's starting to make her really uncomfortable. Especially with all this talk about plans and the like. Thora moves, sliding off the hood of the car and landing neatly on the ground. The crescent-bladed poleaxe is slung over a shoulder and Thora rubs her eyes with her free hand. "Well whatever you guys decide to do, let me know, I guess. I can't really do this plotting thing." 'Or much else.' she thinks sourly. Normally she'd be all for invading this or that too.

Bitter anger eats away at her mind when Maki talks about how much nicer the other side is. Just as quickly as it arrived, her rage over Aki putting her here dies. There wasn't anything she could do about it. Shrugging slowly, she heads back out to wander around aimlessly a little more.


Tohya remains mostly quiet, as before, attention mostly on Maki. Funnily enough, it's easier to focus on her. Sure, she's probably not trying to to sound as weird as she does, and that's why Tohya doesn't make any move to berate her for it. She might be starting to get it, though, so...she'll just move on like she is. But--wait.

"The other side..." The barrier. The talk of the other side actully being livable just flat-out floors her, and she blinks. "What do you mean? Why the difference?" ...Thora can run off, if she likes. The third-year just shrugs. Her reaction to the SEBEC raid is similar--a guarded uncertainty.


Shirou gives a cool glance over to Fumiya. Yeah, he's been rather cold to him lately. He could understand. Shirou did something stupid, but he has a nagling feeling that in the long road, he just took a quick option to an inevitable thing.

That and the bastards wouldn't tell him where Thora was. Which was here. So that works for him.

"Hey folks... I take it we're discussing the impeding invasion plans?"


Fumiya just kind of stares blankly after Maki's response for a moment. "Well... yeah. But not walking the streets." He pauses. Well, that's a lie. He hasn't seen them OFTEN, but he knows they're still there. "Ok, maybe they can be on the streets, but not a crazy amount like this." He finally says, as if it were about quantity.

As Thora walks off in one direction, Fumiya turns to look over his shoulder in another direction. Still plenty of time left in the day. "Well, I'll leave the brainstorming up to the people who are better at it." If it were up to him, he'd probably march right up to this Harem Queen place, despite how crazy it might be. Fumiya's plans, when he has them, tend to be simple, straightforward, and easy to thwart.

With a nod to everyone present, and another glance at Shirou, Fumiya heads back into the town.